Relationships between socioeconomic variables and cover tree of humid tropic cattle farms in Ecuador

The tree cover in livestock farms in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas was characterized and related to socioeconomic variables. Information about characteristics of the farm, livestock production system, the cover tree and pastures was collected through twenty four surveys. Total area farms was 2183 ha, which most of the area corresponded to paddocks. Twenty nine per cent of the farms were dual purpose, twenty five per cent are mixed farms (agriculture - livestock), twenty per cent are milk farms, sixteen per cent are meat farms and eight per cent are agricultural farms. Ninety one per cent of the farms had trees in pastures, and the largest number of trees in pastures reported was used as fruit and shade for livestock. All farms had live fences, consisting of Erythrina poeppigiana; species in live fences were used as shade and forage for cattle and as vegetative material for propagation. Area of crops is positively influenced the total tree cover (primary forest + secondary forest + forest plantation + riparian forests) on the farms. In contrast the area of paddocks, production milk, weaning age, grazing time and the years that producers are dedicated to livestock positively influenced total tree cover in the livestock farms. It is concluded that in the study area, some management practices of livestock system reduced tree cover on farms.